the rope now. you just go in there, pull the bulkhead, open the gates and get it going. >> reporter: it's happened before much in 2001, enraged far farmers, including neil sen, breached the gate to get that water flowing. do you think it would work? >> it would be better than getting nothing. >> reporter: this is the body of water at the heart of the conflict. upper klamath lake is home to two spees of fish that don't exist anywhere else in the world. central to the story and culture. if the fish go extinct what does that mean? >> if those fish die, the people die. >> reporter: these two species have existed for at least a million years, if not more. and we've managed to essentially almost exterminate them in the last hundred. >> reporter: tribal biologist